490 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
itself an area of non-staining substance. The rodlet gradually grows, 
and as it does so takes on one of the varied forms characteristic of 
the cell. 
At the proximal end of the young capsule the tube is now formed in 
very regular spiral turns around the nucleus of the cell. When fully 
formed, or sometimes even earlier, the tube passes into the capsule ; the 
cnidocil, which has the form of a pointed process of the muscular 
investment of the capsules, appears before the formative cell reaches 
the surface of the body. 
The author points out that the muscular stalks of the small stinging 
capsules of PJiysalia utriculus are not, as has been hitherto supposed, 
transversely striated, but have the appearance of fine filaments set in a 
close spiral. The fibres on the short stalks of the large capsules appear 
to be of a similar character. 
Development of the Scyphostoma.* — Prof. C. Claus discusses the 
development of the Scyphostoma of Cotylorhiza, Aurelia , and Chrysaora, 
aud the general question of the systematic relations of the Scyphome- 
dusse. He first describes the monodisc strobilation of Cotylorhiza, and 
points out that the middle stratum in Coelentera has not always the 
same morphological value. Is the proboscis of the Scyphostoma clothed 
with endodermic epithelium or is it an ectodermic gullet ? To this old 
question Prof. Claus returns with vigour, and many arguments against 
the naturalness of the group Scyphozoa are marshalled. At the margin 
of the widely open mouth lies the boundary between the two cell-layers. 
The inner lining of the proboscis (in which a quadrangular basal tube 
with four interradial tseniolae-pads and a flatly expanded or collar-like 
proboscis region are distinguished) is endodermic. The processes of 
strobilation in Aurelia and Chrysaora , the formation of the mouth in 
the Ephyra, the so-called septal-funnels of the Ephyrse, and the 
relationships of the Scyphomedusa? are discussed with the author’s 
wonted force. There is much hard-hitting in the course of the argu- 
ment — sometimes indeed the continuity seems interrupted — and a 
precise summary is not easy. But the general conclusion is one for 
which those who know the author’s works are prepared, that the Cnidaria 
are divided into Anthozoa and Polypomedusae, and the latter into 
Hydromedusse and Scyphomedusse. 
A new Stauromedusa.j — Dr. Gr. Antipa describes Copria Sturdzei 
g. et sp. n., a Stauromedusa found near Capri. It has eight adradial 
marginal lobes modified into true arms, without secondary tentacles, but 
with a fringe round the arms divided into (16-20) small serrations. 
There are (5-8) peculiarly large batteries of stinging-cells on the sub- 
umbrellar wall. There are not even principal tentacles. The circular 
muscles of the umbrellar margin are annular, and are not divisible into 
eight isolated marginal muscles. Longitudinal muscles are distributed 
in a uniform funnel- like manner over the whole surface of the sub- 
umbrella. The four septal ridges of the radial pockets extend almost 
as far as the margin of the umbrella, where they are penetrated by an 
annular canal. There is a long oral stalk. There are eight adradial 
* Arbeit. Zool. Inst. Univ. Wien (Claus), x. (1892) pp 1-70 (3 pis.). 
f MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, x. (1893) pp. 618-32 (1 pi.). 
